Q&A with Jill Calder, illustrator of Coorie Doon by Jackie Kay

Today we invite you to coorie doon and enjoy our latest post, as MBC reviewer Sarah Broadley welcomes illustrator Jill Calder for a special question and answer session.

Question 1
You have worked with many children’s writers over the years, illustrating their stories and bringing their characters to life. Do you ask them for specific information abou the story and those in it? How does your collaboration work?

I find each book is different but overall in traditionally published books the writer and
illustrator tend not have much to do with one another, certainly until publication or book
festival events when you do pair up! That might seem crazy but the illustrator is also a co-
author and so the publisher likes to give them the space and time to develop their take of a
book in their own unique visual direction.
Any information I might need comes from the art director and editor at the initial meetings.
Up until now, I have mainly illustrated non-fiction picture books which are more
straightforward in a way. When I was illustrating ‘Robert the Bruce, King of Scots’ by
James Robertson (Birlinn, 2014) I would email James if I ever had a query about one of
the historical figures or the timeline and he was wonderfully helpful!

Question 2
Coorie Doon, written by Jackie Kay is a lovely story about a Scottish lullaby, among other things. Illustrating about music and lyrics brings an extra dimension to the pages of a picture book, along with the dreams wee Shona had, can you tell us a little about the layout used for Coorie Doon to match Jackie’s story text?

The layout of text was decided pretty early on by the publisher, Walker Books. In the first
half of the book it’s on the left, when Shona is wee and dreaming away. Then as the
characters get older, and the story changes, the text is on the right page. I still had plenty
of room to work my illustrations around the text, shifting from the real world to Shona’s
dream world, then to her memories too.

Question 3
The attention to detail throughout is incredible, how do you decide what to include beside the main illustrations – do you choose background/foreground additions on the basis of the theme or just see where your paintbrush takes you, artistic licence to create, if you will?

Oh I LOVE putting wee details into my illustrations! I think little children, who can’t yet
read, enjoy discovering things in the pictures as the story is being read to them. I’ll add
content that isn’t necessarily mentioned in the text but all makes for a richer visual scene.
For instance, the Three Foxes spread is actually based on hazy childhood memories of my
Granny’s wartime era garden, shed, dahlias, veg patch etc. I loved building Shona’s world,
her cosy bedroom, the house and village she lived in.

Question 4

There are many animals in your illustrations for Coorie Doon, the dream sequence with the unicorns is incredible, how do you choose the colour palate for these spreads?
Pink and blue are actually mentioned in Jackie’s text for this particular spread but the
overall colour palette for all the dream sequences was developed through a bit of back and
forth with my art director at Walker Books, Sadia Chowdhury. I didn’t want the colours to
be very pale pastel colours (not my thing!) so I experimented with ink washes and layering
them up and sent them to Sadia and eventually we hit a sweet colour spot!

Question 5

Do you have a spread by spread planning process or do you create pages/sections of the story as the artistic muse comes to you? Obviously working towards a deadline, how long do you spend on each spread?

With Coorie, I started with the spreads that appealed to me the most! I did have to do
some test illustrations for the very first spread and then some character development
sketches. After that, I started where my ideas were strongest and then let that inform the
other illustrations. I do like scribbling about in thumbnails and it was good to work out
compositional ideas and study the flow of the book in that format.

Question 6
After such a fantastic start to your year with the publication of Coorie Doon, can you tell us what and who you're working with next?

I’m currently working on another very colourful picture book with Two Hoots Books which
should be published in summer 2025! I’m nearly finished it, just the cover to go! I’m excited and very lucky to have two books out in the same year.

More about Jill

Based in Fife, Jill Calder is an award winning illustrator with a passion for colour, ink, paper and pixels. Since graduating from Edinburgh College of Art in 1991, Jill’s work has taken her around the world, most recently to Pakistan and Sri Lanka with the British Council’s Drawing Words exhibition of British picture book illustrators, curated by the then Children’s Laureate, Lauren Child.

In 2022, Jill’s retrospective exhibition, ‘A Blink of Ink…the Creative World of Jill Calder’ was held at Callendar House in Scotland, giving a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of her most interesting projects over the years. Her work has also been displayed at the V&A Museum, the National Museum of Scotland, the Royal Brompton Hospital and the Royal Scottish Academy.

Jill’s book illustrations include Robert the Bruce, King of Scots by James Robertson, What is Poetry? by Michael Rosen and The Sea by Miranda Krestovnikoff. Jill worked with writer, poet and former Makar Jackie Kay to create Coorie Doon, a beautifully dreamy picture book published by Walker Books in January 2025.

Click here to read a review of Coorie Doon.